Where Madness Troubles the Hatter
by Amaniachwen
Summary: Hatter wears his heart on his sleeve, or hat if you prefer, but there is one emotion with which he cannot reconcile himself. And that is a very particular kind of madness. Hatter, post-film.
1. Chapter 1

**** ****

***** *****

******Where Madness Troubles the Hatter******

***** *****

** ** ****

It's a maddening thing to have what you want the most in all the world right before you, practically at your fingertips

…and watch her disappear.

**

**

**

One of the perks of madness is things generally tend to make sense without explanation. Or maybe the real perk is that sense itself is not a concern for one such as I, so the explanations one such as she might seek have no relevance at all for me. ***

But her propensity for sanity is infectious, I fear, for now I find myself looking all over the place for explanations. Every hat I overturn, every pot of tea I drain, every tablecloth I flip up or yank aside—the explanations are not there. I've even begun to search my mind of all places, and surely the answers won't be found there because it is really her mind I am after, and our minds, clearly, are not one and the same.

Yes, she made that very clear that day, the day she left.

*

*

_* Why did she leave? *  
_

_ *_

_ *_

Oh, that silly girl. A great many things in Underland are silly. You don't have not to be silly to see the silliness. It's the Underlandian way of life. That's why she fits in so well here.

Or would, that is, if she were still here.

_ **_

_**_

_**Why isn't she here? **_

_** ** **_

_**_

I cannot for the life or hat of me understand that child's brand of silliness.

Though I know she isn't a child.

No, not at all.

She grew up.

Even though she was small when I first saw her again this second time—the second I saw her, really—it was still quite clear she'd grown up. She was a young lady, no matter how big or small I found her. She was the same Alice, and yet an altogether different Alice.

Or maybe she made me an altogether different Hatter. I know for sure that I was not the same from that first second, and I am unfortunately, wretchedly, hatefully, deplorably, hopelessly—

I am not the same now.

_*** _

_***Alice, why did you go? ***_

_*** _

_ ***  
_

_ ***_

She could have stayed. Everyone wanted her to. Any of us would have happily welcomed her into their homes. I certainly would have…

happily…

But that girl and her reason!

_ ****  
_

_****What was her reason? ****_

****

****

I'm afraid I'll never understand her, that

silly, silly, maddening girl.

_Naught for usal. Naught for usal _at all!

Most likely I will rot here at

the head of my lonely,

lonely table before I figure out

piece by piece or

whole by whole the

workings of her mind.

Most likely I will rot

waiting and waiting

for that girl, that woman,

my Alice, my dearheart,

to return to Underland,

to me, and explain

why the devil she ever

left in the first place. No, the second place. She was just a child

before, but not a child now. Twice now she has left me. And if

she came again, she would only leave me thrice, it would seem,

seeing as she did it so easily this last time, the second time,

when I tried to ask her, to beg her, to stay.

x* **

*x x* ** X

x* * *x

**

_Slurking urpal slackush scrum. Slurvish, __**slurvish**_ girl— *

**x x***x* **x x

—No!

Not my Alice!

How could I ever

say such awful, awful things

about my Alice?

I love the silly, lovely, beautiful, perfect angel,

love her best and most of all

more than any other creature

in all of Underland.

But she left. *

She left *

she left *

she left *

she left *

And it is the most maddening thing of all—oh, I would stop the thought if I could—but I can't…

*

*

*

I am mad…

…mad at!

They shall call me

*

* the Mad Atter,

* for I am mad _at, _you see,

*

my dear Alice.

*

*

For leaving

me.

*

*

*

For saying goodbye

to me.

*

*

I can't understand any of it, and not a bit of her, and I feel so much and cannot make any sense of any of it,

and for the first time in my Mad Hatter life, I want to make sense of it

because maybe then it might go away.

Alice always seemed to feel even just a bit better, was more content at the very least, when she could find an explanation for something.

So maybe if I find an explanation

for this, for her,

maybe then I can be content again.

_ *****_

_ *****_

_*****Again? *****_

_*****_

Was I ever content before_? ******What is it to be content?_****** It is less than perfect happiness, and I have never been perfectly happy, though I haven't not been madly happy at times.

When Alice returned, oh, I was madly happy then.

But content? Perhaps. But had Alice stayed, certainly then, I think, I should have been perfectly happy.

Because I should be very pleased to be perfectly happy with that enchantingly galling girl.

But here I am

talking on and on

about my own happiness.

Perhaps I am

the slurvish one

if I don't give any

thought to her feelings, or any

feeling to her thoughts?

I am a different person from Alice to be sure.

My perfect happiness may not be her perfect happiness.

And if it shouldn't be her perfect happiness,

then it shan't really be mine either in that case.

Perhaps that is the craziness of love about which

I've heard so much but never knew myself

properly until now. It's certainly a different sort of

crazy from my customary madness, or so I have found, and

so I continue to find, everyday that passes

without her. But I think the craziness would be just as

strong were she here, though it would be craziness of a

very different hue.

*

*

*

**A list of what a Mad Hatter knows of madness and love:**

1. It is one thing to be crazy with loneliness without her.

1. It is one thing to be crazy with delirious happiness should she not have gone away.

1. It is also one thing to be mad, for one can be quite content to be simply mad.

???. But it is another thing entirely to be mad at something. Especially the one one loves the most.

*******

Oh, my Alice,

*******

dear Alice,

*******

_what have you done to your Hatter?_

*******

*******

*******

A/N:

Okay, so this is the first thing I've ever written from Hatter's perspective, and my first piece of AiW fanfiction. I apologize if my formatting choices offend any reader's eyes; I was experimenting in an effort to evoke something of how the Hatter's mind might work on paper (or screen, as it were). It is not perfect by any means, so any and all feedback is welcome. If the presentation proves too distracting for the text itself, though, please let me know, and I will post the straightforward text version I originally wrote so as to gather my own thoughts as the writer before going through and confusing it all with perhaps far too wayward creativity.

Also, I have written something of an Alice POV companion piece to this that I will tweak for a week or so before posting after I (hopefully) get some feedback (whether praise or…contrariwise…*fretful flush*) from any kind and helpful readers who wish to contribute their thoughts.

Anyway, thank you all so much for reading. I hope you found something you like in this. : )

Best Wishes,

~Niach

P.S.

Yeah, so Facebook screwed up the formatting of my original document, which is a bit, er, zanier, I suppose, than it is in this version. Let's call this version a happy medium then, shall we? And if anyone has any interest in taking a peek at the super zany one, I should be very glad to email it that person / those people. (Though I wonder if anyone besides myself even cares. haha ^.^'')


	2. Chapter 2

&&

**Impromptu Landings**

&&**  
**

What can I say? My travels abroad have been…well, exhilarating. I never knew this world could be so exciting, nor that it was so big. I suppose I had to leave England, itself an island country, to really see such wonderful possibilities.

And what wonders I have seen out here in the world! I have been the sole person on the deck of a ship at night with only the sound of the waves for company, gazing out into the infinite depths of the sky and sea, counting the pearly white stars in the night until I am positively lost in them, or in the numbers, or both. I've set foot on eastern lands unvisited by a single European for several decades, if not centuries or ever. I've seen animals I never knew existed in this world, and I've met all sorts of peoples with all sorts of customs you couldn't possibly believe unless you saw them for yourself, for words will never really be quite enough.

In short, I'm living the life I always dreamed of but never dared hope for. Once I found the nerve and the "muchness" to realize my impossibilities, it seems just the next day I was sailing off into the world and have been ever since. I really should be delighted, ecstatic, elated, and so on, and so I am.

But…

It has been many months now. And although it is all terribly exciting, and although I am still quite young and full of life, well…I suppose it's as my crewmates tell me: I've become a bit homesick.

And perhaps they are right about that. In fact, they likely are. But what they do not understand is that I do not think I am entirely homesick for home. Or at least, not my proper home, the home where I was born and grew up. No, I think I may be sick for an entirely different place, indeed, for an entirely different land.

I miss Underland.

Or Wonderland, as I will always affectionately think of it.

But it's silly, isn't it, to feel homesick for a place that isn't really one's home? Granted, I have been there twice now, but both trips were really quite short. Even though they seemed to last several days, as I discovered upon my return, I'd only really been gone in fact for an hour, if not a matter of minutes. And even the several days they seemed are a mere handful of days compared to my twenty years.

So most of my life I have spent in England. No, _all_ of my life I have spent there, except for these past few months abroad on the open seas sailing to China. My very brief trips to Underland were…noteworthy, certainly, but they weren't, well…how could my life be _there_ when there's clearly so much I've to do _here_, and so many people here who rely on me in one way or another? _There_ I am just an oddity because I come from this "Overworld", as they call it. And I may be just as much an oddity here in my world, but it is _my_ world, isn't it?

Surely this is where I'm meant to be.

So why do I feel such pangs in my heart when I think of that place and my time there? Why does the word "homesick" recall to my mind and heart not England or my mother or my sister or anything or anyone else…

…but Hatter?

It seems rather inappropriate that I should feel so attached to him even when he is so far—an entire world, in fact—away. We certainly became good friends during my impromptu (or so they were for me, at least) excursions into Underland, and I truly meant what I last told him before we parted, that I would, most certainly, remember him. Only…

I did not expect I should miss him quite this much. It's absurd the way my throat catches so terribly sometimes that I even wish I _wouldn't_ miss him, but this just makes me feel guilty and ashamed because I know in my heart he misses me just as fiercely, if not more. Hatter feels no way else _but_ fiercely. His passion and enthusiasm are what I value most about him, really, though he has a slew of other traits I admire him for as well.

Listen to me, Alice Kingsley, admiring a madman! I suppose I am my father's daughter. He always did tell me I must be quite mad myself, and it always secretly pleased me to think that I was. But then I met Hatter, and he showed me just what madness could be. His flashes of insanity could be frightening at times, I suppose, but I found more in him to awe than fear. And because of this more, he was, perhaps, the greatest wonder of my Wonderland.

But to feel homesick for a wonder?

It is well known across this Overworldian globe that there are seven world wonders. It is quite curious to me that of these seven I have visited China's Great Wall but not England's Stonehenge. Still, just because one of this world's great wonders happens to find its residency in my country of birth, it should not imply that I have any emotional attachment to it whatsoever. Indeed, I do not. And certainly it should never make me feel homesick by its mere mention.

So how is it I feel so terribly and frustratingly melancholy when I think of Hatter? Of his usual bright green eyes, or his ever brilliant red hair, or the way he worships his old, tattered hat? Or how, for some reason, others seem to worship that seemingly worthless, unexceptional hat? Or even how I, for that matter, worship it and find nothing at all worthless or unexceptional about it in the least? Why do the memories of both his smile and his sorrow equally bring tears to my eyes and force me to blink them back as furiously as I can so no one else notices because no one can understand just how terribly, terribly, terribly much these memories mean to me? Why do I look for his burr in others' tones, and why am I so drawn to those who, even for a moment, dip by chance into his brogue or his gentle, tender lisp? Everywhere I've gone and every new place I go, I look for his accent and more: I look for him. Whenever something surprises me or seems utterly absurd, I feel myself want to turn round, to find his eyes, to make contact, to ask him to explain the strangeness before me. And his explanations were never truly explanations to begin with—they were from a madman, after all—but there was…I don't know, something comforting, I suppose, in his so sweet, so kind, so endearing attempts to explain what always was the inexplicable, for that was Underland, and nothing worked there the same as it did here, did it? Nothing at all could possibly…

So the emotions—or really the only, or at least primary, emotion—I felt for Hatter this last time couldn't possibly be what…what I am more and more suspecting it to be. I couldn't be…I couldn't have fallen in love with him…could I? Not when I am, of course, from one world and he from another. And how can I know how Ifeel without knowing how he feels? Does he feel the same for me? _Can_ he, even?

No.

No, I won't think like that. And I shouldn't think like that. It's too insulting. Whether or not Hatter cares for me as much as I think I may for him, I refuse to believe his heart, or any other Underlandian's for that matter, is incapable of such devotion, fondness, and passion. Indeed, how am I to know that _I_ am not the one who is deficient in this respect? After all, if he _did_ love me—and it is only the silly hope of a silly girl that he does or at the very least did entertain such a mad thought at some point—he might have said something before I drank the Jabberwocky's blood and came home. But he did tell me I could stay in Underland, and he seemed really to mean it, so it's not unlikely he _didn't_ want me to stay, so…

Oh, I'msuch a fool! Not even lucky enough to be mad, just so unfortunate as to be a complete and utter idiot!

And if that is the case, well…

This idiot may need to begin not planning another impromptu trip to Underland.

&&

&&

&&

A/N:

So this is the Alice companion piece to my Mad Hatter perspective fic "Where Madness Troubles the Hatter". _Quick randomness: I am having the hardest time writing this author's note because my rats Ange and Chouchou keep jumping on my keyboard, hands, etc. and trying to bother my fresh cup of coffee. RAWR!!! And now Caille is biting the keys!! AWAY WITH YOU!!!_ Anyway, I left a bit of writing/story room at the end of this so that I may continue with these introspections if anyone is interested in reading further. I've somehow gotten myself caught up in three separate fanfics all at once and have put myself on a weekly update schedule for each. This is working out so far, so if reader feedback calls for me to continue, please be confident that I will update regularly (or in any case will do my damndest to during this last hectic week of my spring term). _Ange, get off the top of my computer! It's not a tightrope, and no one's impressed! Well, I might be, but whatever._ This author's note is fail. I give up.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed reading this, and feedback is always, always, always welcome. : )

Best Wishes,

~Niach


	3. Chapter 3

*******

*****Where Madness Troubles the Hatter [Still]*****

*******

** *  
**

**Alice is back!**

**********

she's *

** *******She's back!**

****************

********back

************she's

******************

************she's back!

* * *

****************back *****

****************************she

** ***********************She's back!**

** ***

_** Oh, no…**_

_** *  
**_

she came back sooner than I thought she would if she would at all but she came back early and that's not like Alice Alice is always late didn't expect her at least for many many many days or more or much or all and I'm not ready for her at all not ready at all she can't see me like this like this all up and down and east and west and lost crazy discombobulated confused and mad mad mad mad mad

… *****

oh no this is very bad oh Alice oh no something to focus on something to think oh mm…fez!

*******

***************

_ ****************************Fez._

_ *************************************************  
_

_**Fez.**_

…

…

There, that's better. I shall need all my faculties, mad and half-baked as they are, for this amazement, this horrific, lovely shock.

Oh, what _is_ that girl doing back in Underland again so soon? What could she be thinking? Did she do this on purpose just to torment me? It isn't fair, for I'm not at all ready to see her, for I'm still angry, and the lovely creature shouldn't have to deal with an _angry_ Mad Hatter, should she? After all, it's really not her fault I'm mad, it's really not her fault I'm so very, very madly helplessly in love with her that I can't help but be angry and heartbroken and absolutely hatbroken since she left.

*****

*********************************************************************************Well, she may be a bit to blame for that, actually. _I_ certainly didn't do anything to cause

*****************************************************************************her to be as lovely as she is, and _I_ didn't make her leave me without so much as a goodbye.

*************

No. No, she said goodbye. Didn't she? I could have sworn she didn't, but maybe she did.

****

**********************************************************************************Well, that doesn't really matter anyway, though, because she made me so wretchedly

*********************************************************************************certain she wouldn't be coming back for ages, that silly girl. She made everything sound

*********************************************************************************so terribly, dreadfully final, as if it were the end of everything, and it was practically the

***************************************************************************************************end of me, it was, and I can promise her that, the naughty child.

**

_But she isn't a child, Tarrant_. _She's a lady, a woman_.

*

But I—Tarant, the Mad Hatter—see two Alices. Two Alices with faces, two lovely Alices who stand before hordes more Alices who do not have faces and nothing at all to distinguish them but the hats they wear, the hats I make for them in my mind. A bonnet for baby Alice, a navy hat for adventuresome Alice, a dunce cap for maddening maddening maddening Alice…oh, these Alices! They are so many, so many I wish to know now and have known forever, but we've never the time, never the time!

*****

But we've time now for a third, for she's back. A third Alice! A chance to see her for a second again when I thought my luck ran out with the first. Oh, my Alice is back _again _again! But _what_ is she doing here? What _is_ she doing here?

***************

I don't know her mind, don't know it

at all, and I certainly don't know

my own, else I shouldn't be

mad, but what I do know is

this, a question:

if Alice _is_ back,

then what am _I_

doing _here?  
_

_*_

_ * *_

I sit here locked in my house all alone. Haven't gone out at all since I heard. Haven't so much as had a tea party even, and after I'd finally returned to lovely parties with Thackery and Mally, had finally collected my thoughts well enough to socialize again.

_But then McTwisp with his_

_cruelly accurate clock came with his_

_hatefully, hatefully happy news._

Since _then_ I've been inside, have

barely put on even umpteen pots, a

vagary far bellow the average, mean,

median, mode to which I'm used, for which

I'm known!

*

*************************************************************************************************He, his clock, his news—they've

_****************************************************************************************************razed_ me! _Absolutely razed_.

************************************************************************************************Nearly _erased!_ Just like my dear,

************************************************************************************************** poor Witzend! This is simply…

*

…simply unHatterly of me!

_Absolutely_ unHatterly! I hardly know myself!

The Mad Hatter shouldn't know his

mind, of course, but _Tarrant_—he should know his

self, shouldn't he?

*

McTwisp this is _your _fault you and your bawling

_It's Alice!_ _It's Alice! She isn't late! She isn't late!_

*

I asked him what that made her then and stared him in the eye for as long as it takes water to boil when you haven't the patience to wait but McTwisp hadn't a ready answer for me and because my patience runs dreadfully thin when it comes to matters pertaining to Alice I am very sorry to say I entertained the thought of grabbing the poor chap by the ears and throttling him fortunately though he shifted his eyes from mine and blinked and said

**********

_I suppose then…she's _early.

* * *

************************************************************************************************************Early? Alice early?

**********************************************************************************************************How very unlike her.

*****************************************************************************************************How _absolutely_ unlike her.

***************************************************************************************************Was it really _the _Alice, then?

********************************************************************************************************Was it really_ my_ Alice?

*

McTwisp assured me it was and I haven't any idea what it was came over me but next I knew I was a brooding churning raging storm cloud ordering the white villain away and out of my sight and when he the brave little fellow stood his ground long enough to ask if I had some reply for Alice or the Queen or even Thackery at the very least I roared at him **'NO'** and shut the door in fact I slammed it and I think the hinges are quite upset with me for it because they haven't spoken a squeaky word to me since…

**…**

But my behavior really was quite appalling.

Yes.

I should be terribly ashamed, shouldn't I?

Yes.

I really should.

There, I'm ashamed.

*

**********************************************************************************************************Except that I'm not.

*

I don't care at all about McTwisp or the hinges

or anybody right now. I don't! Not even Alice!

*

*******************************************************************************************Well, I do care about her, but I only do

*********************************************************************************************************because I don't at all.

*

Oh, Hatter, you're as contrary as the Tweedles, you are.

What _is_ the matter with you?

*

**********************************************************************************************Alice. What is the matter with _you?_

*

Alice.

*

**********************************************************************************************************Then you're agreed.

*

Except that you're you.

*

**********************************************************************************************************Except that I'm me.

*

Exactly.

*

**********************************************************************************************We're two apart and one the same.

*

Precisely.

*

************************************************************************************************************And Alice, she's—

*

Lovely.

*

**************************************************************************************—everything. I was going to say 'everything'.

*

Oh, pardon me.

*

*****************************************************************************************************************Pardon _me_.

*

Exactly. So you were saying?

*

****************************************************************************************************************About what?

*

About Alice.

*

*************************************************************************************************Oh, yes. What were we saying?

*

She's everything.

*

*********************************************************************************Right, that was it. Yes, Alice is everything. And we—

*

We're nothing.

*

******************************************************************************No! Not at all! Not even a bit! Tarrant, you lovesick fool,

***********************************************************************************how could you say that?! We're not nothing _at __all_,

**********************************************************************************************you _slurking urpal slakush scrum—_

*

All right, all right! My deepest apologies, I did not mean to offend…

*

*************************************************************************You're a very _slurvish _creature, Tarrant, more than you know.

*

I said I was sorry.

*

************************************************************************We're lucky I'm here to divert you from your _slurvish _thoughts,

********************************************************************************************else we'd be a very unhappy creature.

*

But I _am_ unhappy.

*

*************************************************************************************************************But we have me.

*

It's because we have you I'm unhappy!

*

***********************************************************************************Me? What's our unhappiness have to do with us?

*

Everything!

*

**********************************************************************************Exactly! As I was saying, we're not nothing, we're

******************************************************************************************************everything because we—

*

No! Our unhappiness is everything to do with you! Everything to do with you because it's all _your fault_ Alice didn't stay!

* * *

*

***********************************************************************************************************…_**what was that?**_

*

You heard me. She didn't stay

—she left—

because of you. Because you make us

not good enough. You make us

something that she can never love.

It's impossible!

*

*************************************************************************************_Impossible? _But we say nothing is impossible.

*************************************************************************************************Why should this be impossible?

*************************************************************************************************************We're wonderful!

*

We're mad! YOU'RE MAD!

*

***************************************************************************************On the contrary, _you're _the one shouting, so

_************************************************************************************************************you_, sir, are mad!

*

I'm not mad!

*

****************************************************************************************************************But you are!

*

No, you are!

*

********************************************************************************************************************You are!

*

*

"Hatter?"

*

*

_**What the bluddy scrum is that?**_

*

*

*

*

"Hatter, are you in there?"

*

*

*

*

Oh

*

_**No**_*****************************************************************_**Yes**_

***  
**

it's Alice!

*

this is terrible awful unthinkable the worst thing that could possibly or impossibly happen should never happen should never come to this oh why is it this this loathsome loathsome horrendously horrible event it shouldn't be happening not happening not happening not happening not—

*

*

*

"Hatter…it's me…Alice…"

*

*

*

I can see her shadow I can see it

during the day I see light

shining under the door and it is

daytime still if my clock is still as always

rightly wrong so that shadow there

_must_ belong to Alice

lovely Alice my Alice

Alice knocking at my door

oh happy happy again!

but I don't wish to see her

I can't

not like this

not a heartbroken Tarrant

or a hatbroken Hatter

even when I was at my most reasonable

and least mad and asked her to stay

she left Underland

entirely

and if she sees me now she'll likely

leave again

for good

no for bad

for_ever_

and I shouldn't want that at all so I won't let her in I will wait right here and not make any sound or movement at all until her shadow passes and leaves my door that way she'll think only that she's missed me for she shouldn't know I'm really here for no one knows the thing inside the box until it's opened and even then the one who filled the box in the first place is just as pleasantly surprised to find the contents there as anybody else for he's forgotten precisely what it was after all the biding and suspense so I'll stay locked here in my house until I like the box-bearer have forgotten precisely the madness within my own box my own very mad skull and then I should be fit to see my Alice again and for her to see me yes that is—

*

What's that? Hinges?

Dear hinges, are you speaking to me again?

Have you forgiven your wretched Mad Hatter his doorslamming?

*

**************************************Oh wait…

*

Oh _no…_

_*  
_

It seems that the phrase "to lock oneself in" means that one must, in fact, _lock_ _the door_.

*

oh _Alice_

_*  
_

_Fez_

_fez_

_fez_

_fez_

_fez_

_fez_

_fez_

_fez_

_fez_

_fez_

_fez_

_fez_

_fez_

_fez_

_fez_

_fez_

_fez_

_fez_

_fez_

_fez_

_fez_

_fez_

_fez_

_fez_

_fez_

_fez_

_fez_

_fez_

_fez_

_fez_

_fez_

_fez_

…

…

…

…

_..._

_!!!_

_**_

_**_

To Be Continued...

_**_

_**_

A/N:

Pop quiz time! Okay, everyone, what is the Hatter's favorite punctuation mark?

Answer: Who knows, but it certainly isn't the damn asterisk. I mean, I like to use them for decorative bursts around the page, but honestly, FFnet's current formatting options, though better than they once were, do not encourage experimental forms of writing. Trying to transfer my Word doc. formatting to FFnet is practically impossible. In fact, I'm pretty certain it is. This version is not entirely similar to my original document (which is much cleaner and easier to read due to plenty of white space), but FFnet will not recognize that formatting and ends up screwing it all around, so I have to, in effect, do what I can with the formatting options available here to attempt to achieve a similar effect. Thus, I use the asterisks to try to achieve the white space of my original document, and while it separates the text where I need it to, it just...turns out super messy. At least compared to the original version, which I'm much happier with. SIGH But you lovely readers can be the judge of whether this version is effective or not, the flaws I see in it aside.

That said, I also want to make a nod to those of you who did not particularly care for the formatting of the Hatter's previous piece. I did listen to your concerns/critiques, and I please hope you do not find the still experimental formatting of this chapter to be a slap in the face. I do not mean for it to be at all. I did my best to make this readable while still getting across the play between Hatter's mind and Tarrant's heart, and really, for me, I feel I can't not write the Hatter without shifting his text around. That movement is natural for him, or at least the way I think of him. And as for not relying on the formatting to convey his madness, I tried to make the content stronger in this piece, to evoke the madness of his thoughts, not just the arrangement of them. So I guess what I am trying to say here is...I tried. I listened, I processed, and I tried. Even if you hate this, please know I wrote and designed it with a lot of love (except for when I wanted to punch FFnet in the face for making things more difficult).

Also, another thing: I really, really wanted to have asterisks surrounding Alice's text, but that kept failing. When she says, "Hatter...it's me...Alice..." I have in the original document a connect-the-dots heart around it. I thought it was adorable and tried to do that here, but mega fail across the board on that, sadly.

Anyway, thank you all so much for reading, and feedback is very much welcome.

Have an awesome day, everyone!

Best Wishes,

~Niach


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